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Rights Quotes by James Madison

56 Rights quotes by James Madison

All Rights quotes James Madison’s page

James Madison writes that voting is a basic right of a republic. He warns that democracy can threaten personal safety and property. He also says a government should split power so each part checks the others. He believes civil and religious freedoms deserve the same protection.

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In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.

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Where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure.

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In suits at common law, trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as…

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In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.

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The rights of man as the foundation of just Government had been long understood but the superstructures projected had been sadly defective

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As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in…

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The rights of persons, and therights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

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Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.

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Power must be in the hands of the wealth of the nation, those who have sympathy for property owners and their rights,…

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Measures should be enacted which, without violating the rights of property, would reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity, and raise…

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[In government] the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be…

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The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human…

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The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents,…

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Liberty and order will never be perfectly safe, until a trespass on the constitutional provisions for either, shall be felt with the…

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Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives…

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The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an…

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In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them. He has a property…

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If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude and all the other qualities which enoble the character of a nation, and fulfill the ends…

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Because finally, 'the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his religion according to the dictates of conscience' is…

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Place three individuals in a situation wherein the interest of each depends on the voice of the others, and give to two…

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The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a…

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A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a…

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The members of the legislative department . . . are numerous. They are distributed and dwell among the people at large. Their…

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The danger of silent accumulations & encroachments by Ecclesiastical Bodies have not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S. [...] Besides the danger…

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A pure Democracy, by which I mean a Society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the Government…

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Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to…

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The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.

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The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

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Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority…

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The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of…

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It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the…

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Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that…

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The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free Government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement…

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We look back, already, with astonishment, at the daring outrages committed by despotism, on the reason and rights of man; we look…

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The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established,…

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Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the…

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May it not be asked of every intelligent friend to the liberties of his country, whether the power exercised in such an…

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As the people of the United States enjoy the great merit of having established a system of Government on the basis of…

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I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those…

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Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security…

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More by James Madison

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A…

Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate…

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments…

How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments…

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed,…

It is certain that every class is interested in [educational] establishments which give to the human mind its highest improvements, and to every Country…

Since it is impossible for the people spontaneously and universally, to move in concert towards their object; and it is therefore essential, that such…

The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

They can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass…

The effect of a representative democracy is to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body…

“... But besides the danger of a direct mixture of Religion & civil Government , there is an evil which ought to be guarded…

Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised;…

“It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government…

The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion…